Letters to the Editor

An infuriating comparison

To the Editor:

Some seniors may remember how, back in freshman year, one of our unsuspecting classmates mistakenly sent out an e-mail to the entire freshman class listserv, setting off a firestorm of childish replies making fun of this kid. The e-mails got so annoying that someone eventually sent out a reply saying something like, "This is why people at Harvard and Princeton don't respect us."

This, of course, set off a whole new slew of e-mails directed at this person, viciously chastising him for bringing up this comparison.

And this, in relation to Amy Potter's recent column ("Seniors not quite in the giving mood," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 4/17/03) is where I think this year's Senior Gift drive has gone horribly wrong.

In general, Penn students, myself included, HATE comparisons to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. We're not any of these schools. We never will be. We may never even rank above them in the all-important U.S. News rankings. (Gasp!)

And that's fine by me. Penn is what Penn is. This is a great school and frankly, we need to start embracing the traditions and privileges that make us unique from those other schools. Who cares if people think Harvard, Yale and Princeton are better than us? Who cares if people confuse us with Penn State? We know who we are, and that's all that should be important.

So when I first saw this campaign trying to compare our admittedly small gift-giving rate to those other schools, I honestly thought it was embarrassing to us as a school. Just because they have 50-plus percent participation means that we must also?

You want to get us to contribute to the Senior Gift? Instill some pride in us. Tell us what this is going to give back to the school. Send us drawings of what this Class of 2003 Terrace is going to look like. Just please end these stupid comparisons.

Andy Klein College '03

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